Solid combination of vitamins and process of making same.



" United States without the ATHEBTON BEIDELL, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OFCOLUMBIA.

SOLID COMBINATION OF VITAMINS .AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters-Patent.

Application flied January 18, 1916. Serial No. 71,885.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

@amcaran are me PUBLIC.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I; ATHERTONI SEIDELL, U

a citizen of the United States, residingat Washington, District ofColumbia, have 1nvented certam new and useful Improvements in SolidCombinations of Vitamins and Processes of Making Same, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This application is made under the act of March 3, 1883; chapter 143 (22Stat, 635), and the invention herein described and claimed may be usedby the Government of the United States or any of its ofiicers oremployees in the prosecution of work for the United States or by anyperson 1n the payment of any r0 alty thereon.

hfy invention is an improved process for easily obtaining vitamins in asolid stable form suitable for'use in the prevention and cure ofnutritional deficiency diseases.

I It has been shown in recent years that in additionto the previouslyrecognized necessar components of foods, such as proteins, carohydrates, fats, etc., there must also be present in a healthful diet acertain amount of a substance (or substances) to which the general termvitamin has been given. though it is believed that a mixed diet willordinarily contain an adequate supply of vitamin, it has beendemonstrated that under certain conditions an insufficient amount may beavailable in the food su ply of certain individuals, and diseases 0.aracterized by nutritional disturbances result. In connection with thedevelopment of this conception, many efi'orts have been made to isolatevitamins for the purpose of a more minute study both as to theirchemical nature and physiological activity. All procedures so fardeveloped have been very wasteful and none have yielded a productavailable in sufficient amounts for general use in medicine.

I have found that by adding fullers earth to a liquid such as thefiltrate from autolyzed yeast known to contain a relatively large amountof vitamin that a selective adsorption of the vitamin occurs and thatafter the thoroughly shaken mixture of fullers earth and the liquid hasbeen filtered, the filtrate is practically free from vitamin, whereasthe solid contains practically all that was originally present in theliquid.

This process is, therefore, very efficient in that t e vitamin isseparated quite perfectly from the relatively large roportion of themany other substances with which it occurs.

The solid product is obtainable in large amounts and can be readilydried'and the vitamin contained in it retains its physiological activityfor at least several months.

The procedure for preparing the new combination of vitamin and a solidinorganic adsorptive a cut such as fullers earth may, for instance, ecarried out as follows: Washed and ressed brewers yeast is caused toautolyze, z. e., digest itself, by keeping it at a temperature of 375C.for about 36 hours. The resulting thick liquid is filtered and to theclear filtrate is added 50 grams of very finely divided fullers earthfor each liter of liquid. The mixture is shaken and standardhydrochloric acid of normal strength is added in the proportion of 10 c.0. per liter, for the purpose of increasing the rate of subsidence ofthe solid. After standing until the solid has completely settled to thebottom, the supernatant liquid is siphoned off.- The solid 1s thenwashed by decantation with dilute acid of ap rox1- mately 0.01 normalstrength and nally washed on a suction filter with several smallportions of strong ethyl alcohol. It is then dried in a vacuumdesiccator containing concentrated sulfuric acid. I have found byexperiments on pigeons rendered neuritic by an exclusive diet of olishedrice, that if less than 50 grams of ullers earth was used per liter ofthe autolyzed yeast filtrate, that the vitamin was not removedcompletely. It is, therefore, necessar to select an adsorptive agent ofhigh e ciency and to use an adequate amount of it to remove the vitamincompletely.

Calculating on the basis of experiments made with the nutritionaldeficiency disease, polyneuritis gallinarum (in pigeons), an adequatedose of the activated solid, for a man, would be 5 grams. This is anamount which can be easily taken in aqueous sus pension or in capsulesand taken daily will urnish sufficient vitamins to replace a deficiencywhich would otherwise eventually result in noticeable symptoms.

Although I have referred above to yeast filtrates as the source'of thevitamin I do not confine myself to this source alone since the processis equally ap licable to juices I .bination of vitamin and What I claimand desire to secure by Letter's Patent of theUnited States is:

1 1. 'A process for separating vitamin from complex mixtures by the useof an, inorganic physiologically inert adsorptive agent.

' 2. A solid product conslsting of a comologically inertsolid.

In testimon whereof I afiix mysignature in presence 0 twowitnessesrfWitnesses:

'G. W. MCCOY, .AsM, STlMSON.

-i ATHERTONzsE lp ELL.

an inorganic physii

